Inequality in the family: The institutional aspects of women’s earning contribution

This paper examines the effect of employment-supportive policies and arrangements on women’s economic contribution to their family. Using samples of working-age couples in 21 countries we employ multilevel modeling to separate the effects of household and country-level variables on earnings. We distinguish two types of relevant contextual factors: those that support women’s employment while preserving their domestic roles and those that potentially reduce intra-family economic inequalities by allowing women to allocate more of their time to paid employment. The findings suggest that all employment-supportive policies and arrangements increase women’s relative contribution to the household income through their effect on female labor force participation. Among dual-earner families, however, higher rates of childcare facilities increase women’s contribution, while long maternity leave and part-time employment decrease it. These tendencies are more pronounced among mothers.     

Women’s status and carbon dioxide emissions: A quantitative cross-national analysis

Global climate change is one of the most severe problems facing societies around the world. Very few assessments of the social forces that influence greenhouse gas emissions have examined gender inequality. Empirical research suggests that women are more likely than men to support environmental protection. Various strands of feminist theory suggest that this is due to women’s traditional roles as caregivers, subsistence food producers, water and fuelwood collectors, and reproducers of human life. Other theorists argue that women’s status and environmental protection are linked because the exploitation of women and the exploitation of nature are interconnected processes. For these theoretical and empirical reasons, we hypothesize that in societies with greater gender equality there will be relatively lower impacts on the environment, controlling for other factors. We test this hypothesis using quantitative analysis of cross-national data, focusing on the connection between women’s political status and CO₂ emissions per capita. We find that CO₂ emissions per capita are lower in nations where women have higher political status, controlling for GDP per capita, urbanization, industrialization, militarization, world-system position, foreign direct investment, the age dependency ratio, and level of democracy. This finding suggests that efforts to improve gender equality around the world may work synergistically with efforts to curtail global climate change and environmental degradation more generally.     

Restrictive abortion laws, antiabortion attitudes and women’s contraceptive use

This study empirically examines the public and social policy question: Do state restrictive abortion laws affect the likelihood that women use more highly effective contraceptive methods? Using contraceptive use data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System 2002 survey, the empirical results show that Medicaid Funding Restrictions, Informed Consent Laws, and Two-Visit Laws have no significant impact on adult women’s (ages 18-44, 18-24, 25-34, 35-44) use of highly effective contraceptive methods. A state’s antiabortion attitudes, which likely contribute to the enactment of restrictive abortion laws in a state, are a major factor in inducing greater use of highly effective contraceptive methods by adult women at-risk of an unintended pregnancy. The empirical findings remain robust for various population subgroups of adult women (i.e., married, single, employed, unemployed, with children, no children and college educated).     

A new look at married women’s labor force transitions in Japan

In this paper, we examine educational differences in married women’s labor force attachment in Japan using 10 waves of data from a nationally representative survey. Results of discrete-time multi-state hazard models of labor force exit and entry indicate that university graduates are both more likely to remain in and less likely to reenter the labor force relative to women with a high school education or less. Their relatively low likelihood of labor force exit reflects educational differences in occupational characteristics, especially employment in full-time, standard jobs. However, junior college and university graduates remain substantially less likely to reenter the labor force net of family circumstances, characteristics of previous employment, and efforts to control for unobserved characteristics. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that tension between emerging incentives to remain in the labor force and lingering incentives to remain out of the labor force are both relatively strong among highly educated women. We conclude with speculation about the implications of these educational differences in married women’s employment for stratification.     

Globalization, the structure of the world economy and economic development

How does the structure of the world economy determine the gains from participation therein? In order to answer this question, we conduct a state of the art network analysis of international trade to map the structure of the international division of labor (IDL). We regress cross-national variation in economic growth on positional variation and mobility of countries within the IDL from 1965 to 2000. We find that the highest rates of economic growth occurred to countries in the middle of the IDL over the course of globalization. Second, we find that upper tier positions in the IDL are converging with each other, but diverging from the lower tier. This suggests that the mechanism underlying the rapid economic growth in intermediate positions was their uniquely high rates of upward mobility, in turn a function of their middling position. Taken together, these findings suggest that a country’s long-term economic development is conditioned by its position in the IDL.     

Meet the new boss…same as the old boss? Female supervisors and subordinate career prospects

Whereas prior research has focused on women’s access to managerial authority, an equally important question is the effect on subordinates’ careers when they report to a female boss. One line of thought suggests that female bosses act as change agents by fostering the careers of female subordinates, whereas the cog in the machine perspective suggests that female bosses either willingly or are constrained to promote men’s careers. Using data from the 2002 National Study of the Changing Workforce, analytic models of subordinates’ perceived job-related support from supervisors and advancement prospects were developed. Results were consistent with the cog in the machine perspective in that in contrast to women, men received more job-related support and were more optimistic about their careers when they reported to a female supervisor. Yet, given the paucity of research on this topic, more research (especially longitudinal studies) is needed to fully understand how supervisors affect subordinates’ careers.     

Impact of the spread of mass education on married women’s experience with domestic violence

This paper investigates the association between mass education and married women’s experience with domestic violence in rural Nepal. Previous research on domestic violence in South Asian societies emphasizes patriarchal ideology and the widespread subordinate status of women within their communities and families. The recent spread of mass education is likely to shift these gendered dynamics, thereby lowering women’s likelihood of experiencing domestic violence. Using data from 1775 currently married women from the Chitwan Valley Family Study in Nepal, we provide a thorough analysis of how the spread of mass education is associated with domestic violence among married women. The results show that women’s childhood access to school, their parents’ schooling, their own schooling, and their husbands’ schooling are each associated with their lower likelihood of experiencing domestic violence. Indeed, husbands’ education has a particularly strong, inverse association with women’s likelihood of experiencing domestic violence. These associations suggest that the proliferation of mass education will lead to a marked decline in women’s experience with domestic violence in Nepal.     

Uneven transitions: Period- and cohort-related changes in gender attitudes in China, 1995-2007

This paper analyzes temporal variations in two gender attitudes in China: beliefs about gender equality and perspectives on women’s combined work and family roles. It uses the most currently available population series from the 1995, 2001 and 2007 World Value Surveys of 4500 respondents and a series of multilevel cross-classified models to properly estimate period and cohort effects. Attitudes toward women’s dual roles manifest neither period nor cohort effects; the population displays a universal high level of acceptance of women’s paid employment. Orientations toward gender equality manifest both cohort and period effects: members of the youngest cohort of both sexes hold the most liberal attitudes; the positive effect of college education has increased over time. Attitude toward gender equality in China displays neither a shift toward conservatism nor an over-time trend toward egalitarianism in 1995-2007, a time of rapid economic growth.     

Gender quotas for women in national politics: A comparative analysis across development thresholds

Women's share of global lower or single house parliamentary seats has increased by over 70% over the course of the 21st century. Yet these increases have not been uniform across countries. Rather countries with low levels of socioeconomic development have outpaced developed democracies in terms of the gains made in the formal political representation of women. One reasonable explanation for this trend is the adoption in many poorer countries of national gender quota legislation, that is, affirmative action laws intended to compensate for sex discrimination in the electoral process. Yet, cross-national analyses examining quotas as an explanatory factor typically use a simple binary (yes/no) variable that either conflates the diverse intra-quota variations into a single variable or includes only one part of the many quota variations. By contrast, using an originally compiled dataset that includes 167 countries from 1992 to 2012, this paper employs measures of gender quota legislation that capture the complexity and considerable diversity of existing quota legislation. These measures allow us to identify the specific factors that have helped so many less developed countries rise to the top of international rankings in recent years. The findings indicate that the effect of each type of gender quota, as well as other explanatory variables, do not operate in the same way across all countries. Specifically, voluntary political party quotas are substantially more effective in developed countries, while reserved seat quotas are only significant in least developed countries. Electoral candidate quotas, on the other hand, can be significant across all countries, however only have a positive effect when they are accompanied by placement mandates that ensure women are placed in winnable positions, sanctions for non-compliance that are significant enough to force adherence, and a minimum mandated threshold of at least 30%.     

Buffering income loss due to unemployment: Family and welfare state influences on income after job loss in the United States and western Germany

This article analyzes how the family and the welfare state influence household income trajectories after job loss in the United States and in western Germany. Drawing on panel data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) and the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP), I study the income buffering effects of the family and the welfare state in the short an in the long run after job loss. I demonstrate that household income trajectories after job loss in the two countries are similar for couple households. However, men in the United States rely relatively more on family resources to overcome income loss, whereas German men’s incomes are secured mostly by the welfare state. Women’s unemployment in both countries is mainly buffered by their partners’ higher earnings. Because single households have no access to family support, they face much higher losses in the United States than in Germany. I also show that the more generous German welfare state triggers less private self-help in the form of increased labor force participation on the part of women when their partners lose their jobs. Over time, the family has become more important in buffering incomes after job loss in the United States which smoothed men’s and roughened women’s income trajectories in couple households. In Germany, worsening re-employment chances increased income losses in the long run after job loss.     

Varieties of indebtedness: Financialization and mortgage market institutions in Europe

During the global housing boom that preceded the 2007–9 financial crisis, household debt increased substantially in many European countries, posing a challenge for literature on financialization and the institutional heterogeneity of mortgage markets. This paper examines recent institutional shifts in European mortgage markets and specifies three analytically distinct models of debt accumulation: inclusion, extension and intensity. While existing research has emphasized inclusion (access to homeownership), we show that financial intensification is an important determinant of cross-national variation in debt. We assess the variation in financial intensity in six European countries (France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain) using household-level survey data. Our results show that inclusion and expansion explain only part of the cross-national variation in mortgage debt to income ratios. Furthermore, household financial behavior is consistent with the financial intensity model, and variation in the degree of financial intensification explains a substantial portion of the cross-national difference in debt levels.     

我国女性遭受家庭暴力的根源与对策分析——以马克思主义异化理论为视角

家庭暴力,特别是女性遭受家庭暴力是一个严重的社会问题。从马克思主义劳动异化理论的视角看,女性遭受家庭暴力是性别异化的结果,社会性别角色的固定化是主要根源,父权制是最终根源。马克思对异化的扬弃是通过消灭私有制、消灭分工来完成的,因此,根除和减少家庭暴力就必须消解社会性别角色的束缚;提高女性的经济地位;扩大女性的政治参与权;增强女性防暴能力,同时,加强社会对家庭暴力的干预力度。     

Estimations of parental and self intelligence as a function of parents’ status: A cross-cultural study in Germany and Spain

With reference to the extensively reported gender differences in estimated intelligence, we used a cross-cultural study to investigate whether employment status and education of mothers and fathers (at the time of data collection, in early childhood, and in later childhood) influenced the estimation of parents’ general intelligence. Data showed that mothers’ as well as fathers’ general intelligence was significantly predicted by their education and current employment status. We additionally found a similar relationship between women’s (men’s) and mothers’ (fathers’) intelligence compared with the relationship of intelligence ascribed to their fathers (mothers). Furthermore, women’s self-estimated intelligence was significantly predicted by their mothers’ current employment, whereas men’s self-estimated intelligence was predicted by their fathers’ education. We furthermore investigated how women’s and men’s estimations differ between Germany and Spain. Results indicate that the more pronounced gender segregation in Spain was not expressed in larger gender differences in self- or parents’ intelligence estimations.     

家庭冷暴力的立法思考

当前我国没有对家庭冷暴力进行法律规制,随着实践中家庭暴力形式的变化,我国应该将它纳入到反家庭暴力法的立法范畴,在法律上对之进行明确界定,并通过建立家庭冷暴力案件举证责任倒置制度、家庭暴力婚内损害赔偿制度和建立专门的法律援助机构等使得对家庭冷暴力的法律规制得以实现。     

Another cost of being a young black male: Race, weaponry, and lethal outcomes in assaults

We examine the effect of the race, age, and gender of victims of assault on the offenders’ use of weapons and lethal intent. Evidence from the National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS) suggests that offenders are particularly likely to use guns against young black men—a three-way interaction - and to kill black males and young black adults. Black offenders respond more strongly to the victim’s race than do white offenders. As a result of these effects, a violent incident between two young black men is about six times more likely to involve a gun than a violent incident between two young white men. We suggest that adversary effects, i.e., an offender’s tactical response to the threat posed by adversaries, help explain why violence in black communities tends to be much more serious than violence in white communities.     

Normative or economic behavior? Fertility and women’s employment in Israel

Women’s employment and childrearing are competing activities, which exert much pressure on their time and energy. Many studies have found that women in paid employment, especially in a demanding career, limit their fertility and have few children or none. This negative correlation was explained mainly in terms of opportunity costs and the incompatibility of women’s employment and childrearing. This study focuses on the interplay between women’s employment and fertility decisions in Israel, a socially diverse country, characterized by high levels of both fertility and female employment. We argue that in an environment which supports and encourages high fertility women’s employment activity is less consequential for family planning. The study analyzes simultaneously the decision to have a third child and the decision to work. The findings show that fertility affects negatively women’s work activity, but women’s employment has no effect on their decision to have an additional child. Also, cultural variables affect the fertility decision but not economic considerations, while the opposite holds for the work decision.     

Her money, her time: Women’s earnings and their housework hours

Do husbands and wives divide housework on the basis of who makes more money? Much of the recent literature has focused on the effects of individuals’ earnings relative to their partners’ on their housework. By contrast, this paper analyzes the effects of women’s own earnings on the time they spend doing housework in the context of heterosexual couple households. A conservative estimate using the second wave of the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH) is that the negative association of women’s housework with their own earnings is two to three times greater than that with their partners’; in the full model, the association with partners’ earnings is not statistically significant. The importance of women’s own earnings in housework models is highlighted by the comparable effect of income on housework among single women. It appears that so far as housework is concerned, women do not benefit greatly from their male partners’ incomes. The finding emphasizes the gender segregation of domestic labor, and underscores the importance of income differences among women in explaining their housework behavior. It shows that the difference between the mean housework hours of the women with the lowest and highest earnings is as large as the difference between the mean housework hours of women and men.     

The Dynamic Interdependence of Women′s Employment and Fertility

Research on the causal relationship between women′s fertility and their employment patterns has yielded contradictory findings. In order to shed some light on the confusion that has resulted, hazard models are used to investigate the possibility these two variables are dynamically interdependent. Transition rates among combined states of pregnancy and fertility are analyzed for a data set consisting of joint work and fertility event histories for a national sample of young white and black women. The results lend support to the interdependence thesis. Pregnancy and motherhood increase the rate at which women leave employment and decrease their reentry rate. Furthermore, I find that women′s wages, and for white women, employment status as well, are negatively and significantly related to their rate of becoming pregnant.     

The “new” military and income inequality: A cross national analysis

Military expenditures have escalated over the last three decades in both developed and less developed countries, without a corresponding expansion of military personnel. Spending has instead been directed towards hi-tech weaponry, what we refer to as the “new” military. We hypothesize that this new, increasingly capital-intensive military is no longer a pathway of upward mobility or employer of last resort for many uneducated, unskilled, or unemployed people, with significant consequences for those individuals and society as a whole. One such consequence, we argue, is an increase in income inequality. We test this hypothesis with cross-national panel models, estimated for 82 developed and less developed countries from 1970 to 2000. Findings indicate that military capital-intensiveness, as measured by military expenditures per soldier, exacerbates income inequality net of control variables. Neither total military expenditures/GDP nor military participation has a significant effect. It appears from these findings that today’s “new” military establishment is abrogating its historical role as an equalizing force in society, with important policy implications.     

Partners’ relationship quality and childbearing

This study examines the influence of partner relationship quality on childbearing. We are innovative in using relationship quality reports from both partners, drawing on the first and second wave of the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study. Thus, we can identify potential effects of discordant perceptions of the relationship on childbearing. We also pose a new hypothesis on the direction of the effect of relationship quality on fertility, predicting that medium levels of relationship quality result in the highest childbearing rates. Our results indicate that only women’s perceptions of relationship quality influence a first birth, whereas women’s and men’s perceptions affect second births. We do not find unique effects of disagreement in assessments of relationship quality; effects of partners’ perceptions are additive. Women reporting medium levels of relationship quality are most likely to have a(nother) child, whereas men with medium and high quality relationships are most likely to have a second child.